Fabio Cannavaro could be just what Juve need

Juve have endured a fairly difficult season in the fact that it never really looked like they were going to get the better of Inter Milan and take the Scudetto. One of the things that has disappointed me about I bianconeri this season has been their defence, which has on occasion made some costly and very avoidable errors. They need another top quality centre-half and Cannavaro is a player who very much fits the bill.

His form at Real Madrid has never really matched the form he once had in Serie A. In all fairness I’m not sure he could ever have lived up to the expectations of the Bernabeu crowd following his Ballon d’Or win in 2006. His three years in Madrid have been a fairly difficult time for Cannavaro and a move to Juve could re-ignite his own career as well as give the Turin club a massive lift.

It seems a fairly safe football bet that it will take a bit of effort for Cannavaro to win back the affections of the Juve crowd. He left when the club were stripped of their Serie A status to join Fabio Capello at Real Madrird. However, Juve are back at the top of Italian football now and it shouldn’t prove too difficult a task to regain the support of the fans who will remember how good he was in his time at the Stadio Olimpico.

Should Cannavaro opt for a switch to Juve he will no doubt want to help push the club towards a Scudetto. He did win the Serie A title in 2004/05 and 2005/06 but those titles were both revoked due to Calciopoli scandal, so amazingly Cannavaro has never technically won the Italian league. Juve have fallen way behind the pace on Inter Milan this season but in terms of quality I don’t think they’re that far away, though they will have to find a suitable replacement for Pavel Nedved who will retire at the end of the current campaign.

Juve will have to battle hard for the one-time world player of the year with Italian rivals Napoli (his first club and the team he supported as a boy) and AC Milan also reportedly interested in his services. Cannavaro also apparently has options in Germany and England with Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City also credited with an interest. However, Cannavaro has unfinished business at Juve and playing in a top Italian side is more likely to see him win a place in the 2010 World Cup, something he set his sights on after missing Euro 2008 through injury.